Rob Muldoon, New Zealand sergeant, accountant, and politician, 31st Prime Minister of New Zealand (d. 1992)
Sir Robert David Muldoon (; 25 September 1921 – 5 August 1992) was a New Zealand politician who served as the 31st Prime Minister of New Zealand, from 1975 to 1984, while Leader of the National Party.
Serving as a corporal and sergeant in the army in the Second World War, Muldoon completed his training as an accountant and returned to New Zealand as its first fully qualified cost accountant. He was first elected to the House of Representatives at the 1960 general election as the Member of Parliament for Tamaki, representing the National Party. In this time of political stability, Muldoon served successively as Minister of Tourism (1967), Minister of Finance (1967–1972), and Deputy Prime Minister (1972). During these years, he built up an informal but solid backing amongst National's mostly rural cohort of frustrated conservatives, which he labelled "Rob's Mob"—possibly in imitation of gangs such as the Mongrel Mob. With this nascent but loyal political support, he was able to easily overthrow the moderate party leader Jack Marshall to become Leader of the Opposition in 1974, and through his own mixture of approachable liberalism and hard conservativism ("counterpunching", a term he coined), ruthless leadership and promise of a lucrative superannuation scheme, soon led the National Party to a decisive victory over Labour in the 1975 general election.Muldoon came to power promising to lead "a Government of the ordinary bloke." He appointed himself Minister of Finance. His tenure as Prime Minister was plagued by an economic pattern of stagnation, high inflation, growing unemployment, and high external debts and borrowing. Economic policies of the Muldoon Government included national superannuation, wage and price freezes, industrial incentives, and the Think Big industrial projects. He also continued the previous government's policies of the Dawn Raids, which targeted Pacific Islander overstayers. In foreign policy, Muldoon adopted an anti-Soviet stance and re-emphasised New Zealand's defence commitments to the United States and Australia under the ANZUS pact. His refusal to stop a Springbok rugby tour of New Zealand divided the country and led to unprecedented civil disorder in 1981. Muldoon led his party to two additional election victories in 1978 and 1981, with the unrepresentative first-past-the-post electoral system keeping him in power despite losing the popular vote in every election except 1975. At the 1984 snap election, however, National suffered a significant defeat to Labour. Shortly before leaving office, amid a constitutional crisis, Muldoon was forced by the incoming Government to devalue the New Zealand dollar. In 1984, he was only the second Prime Minister (after Sir Keith Holyoake) to receive a knighthood while still in office.
Departing significantly from the humble and moderate National Party governance style he succeeded, Muldoon has been called the first world leader to serve with an informal and abrasive personality. A controversial politician known for his stereotypically blokeish persona, he has been variously described as one of the pre-eminent Western statesmen of his generation (both loved, and hated by a certain generation), an "enigma," and a fierce political anomaly in his more moderate country who laid the footing for the likes of right-wing populist leaders such as Donald Trump and Silvio Berlusconi.